William C. Chittick

“He is with you wherever you are” (Q. 57:4). But to say that God is present with us is not the same as saying that we are present with Him. Presence with God needs to be achieved. It is the object of the spiritual quest. The whole problem is that people are not present with the God who is present with them.

The famous aphorism, al-sufi ibn al-waqt, “The Sufi is the son of the moment”… implies a certain passivity on the part of the traveller, and in this chapter the Shaykh explains that the Sufi should rather be sahib al-waqt, “the owner of the moment”.

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With thanks to Prof. Chittick and the Ibn Arabi Society.